Process for manufacturing compressed cereal bars



United States Patent f PROCESS FOR MANUFACTURING COMPRESSED CEREAL BARS Samuel A. Matz, Chicago, Ill., assignor to the United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army No Drawing. Application August 27, 1953 Serial No. 377,003

2 Claims. (Cl. 99-83) (Granted under Title 35, U. S. Code (1952), see. 266) The invention described herein, if patented, may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes, without the payment to me of any royalty thereon.

This invention relates to a process for making compressed cereal bars and its principal object is to provide a cereal bar which will withstand the normal rough handling to which such rations are subjected. Cereal bars are frequently used as part of the rations issued to troops in war zones. While they are carefully wrapped and boxed, their boxes are often dropped in handling, and unless the cereal bars have an inherent rigidity, they will fragmentize, which will result in losses if not actual discarding.

Another object is to produce a compressed cereal bar without using glycerol and other polyhydroxy type binders. Such binders sometimes produce off-flavors and are therefore undesirable. An ancillary object is to provide a cereal bar which is palatable and nutritious.

In general, my process involves adding 1 to 6% of water to sugar-coated cereals while they are being agitated for the minimum time necessary to distribute all the water over the surfaces of the cereal particles, then compressing the moistened cereal particles with a pressure of not less than 500 pounds per square inch nor more than 2000 pounds per square inch to make an easily handled bar or cake. Other ingredients may be added after the water is mixed with the cereal particles and before compression: these ingredients may be fats or shortening, solid flavoring, non-fat milk solids, and other solids in finely-divided form,

but they must be of such a nature and of such proportions that they will not seriously interfere with the adhesion of the moistened particles of sugar-coated cereal. Shortening imparts a certain degree of softness to the bar and improves the eating properties, but too much shortening makes the bar too soft and fragile for normal handling. I prefer that the shortening be from 1% to 12% of the total weight of the bar and that the non-fat milk solids range from 1% to 6% of the total weight.

To give a clearer idea of my process and the products produced by it, I give below five examples, together with some tests for breaking strength, which clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of my discovery that the addition of water in small amounts will cause firm adhesion of sugar-coated cereal particles following compression into flat bar form.

EXAMPLE I Sugar-coated oven-pulled rice of the variety sold on the market as Krinkles was placed in the bowl of a Hobart mixer employing a fiat paddle and the machine was started. 7

. of the plunger for receiving one of a set of scale weights,

2,824,806 Patented Feb. 25, 1958 ice on an area 3% x 1%; in., using two strokes. Then the bars were tested for breaking strength in the specially devised breaking point tester described below.

Table 1 Sugar- Uncoated Average Sample N o. coated oven-pufied H 0 Breaking oven-pulled rice (gm) (gm.) Wt. (gm.}

rice (gm.)

It should be explained that samples 3 and 4 were only half as thick as the other bars, hence their breaking strength was much lower than that of sample 2.

The type of mixer used is not critical, but the speed and design of the paddle should be such as to minimize breakage of the cereal particles. A drum type mixer or a rib-- bon mixer, such as are manufactured by the Day Company, would produce equally good results. The Denison: apparatus referred to above is a hydraulic press. Any apparatus capable of applying sufficient pressure to a die can be used for forming the cereal bars. In forming a bar, the more strokes that are used, the firmer the bar will be up to a limiting number of strokes, which varies with different types of cereals.

THE BREAKING POINT TESTER table, a raised cereal bar clamp fixed to the fiat base and adapted to clamp the cereal bar at one end only so that the cereal bar extended horizontally over the base with one end free to sustain loads, a plunger pivoted or hinged to the base and adapted to contact the free end of the cereal bar on its upper face, and a weight pan fixed on top starting with 100 gm. and increasing by 100 gm. increments. The weights were added to the panat regular intervals until the cereal bar broke. This weight. was.

recorded as an indication of bar rigidity and. resistance to 1 breakage.

Since the weight of the plunger and the scale pan are constant, their weight was not recorded as part of the breaking weight.

EXAMPLE II continued. until the shortening was fully mixed. This mixture was compressed into a cereal bar by putting one ouncein the Denison apparatus and applying eight tons of pressure on an area of 3% x A in., using two strokes.

Then the bar. was tested in the tester, described'above.

See sample 1 of the following table.

To show the effect of the sugar coating of the cereal particles on the strength of the cereal bar, I also added 40 A gm. of Drivert (approximately 90% sucrose and 10% non-fat milk solids and shortening were added exactly invert sugar) to gm. of non-sugar-coated oven-pufied rice, to make a total of gm., the same weight used in making sample 1. Thus, the same amount of sugar was present in both samples. Then'4 gm. of water and the deserib'ediahove. 1A 'oneoUnce bar was made of this Table second-run; andtested"in-the" tester described-above?- v Table2 shows the results: a Sugar- Sugar- I V V V S a 1 N coatetil free1 D(rlve)rt" Sggrt- HOV B f 1 ff As ampe 0. cerea cerea gn{1. e mg rea ng .T UQ W e r V V -l (g -r (gm) t-( -l sugar sagar- Lion-fat shim 172 V o f 20 5.5 Sample coated free Drivert-f i milk ening 20 0 V 100 7N0. cereal cereal (gmi) solids (gm.) 0 115 57 a 207 i; (gm.-)" '(gm'.)-' m.- to e. U a V 1 a a a r EXAMPLEV V1 ..1 160* 0 1; 01 20;, 20 4 '150 a h 2 0 120' 40 20; 7 20 4 50 Sugar-coated.- oven-pnfied ncet Krmkles andisugar- ?under the trade'markfFSugar Crisp, was placed: in the 'Table 3 below. The same amounts of non-fat milk solids "(rising four; strokes) and .then 'tested as preiriduslY-dt.

7 l V I a coated cornflakes(Corn fetti )"injequal amounts 'wer'e V 7 r v v put in the mixer deser'ibedabovejahd water was added' It cleari from the results;tabulatedjgwwfmatil I 15 slowly. The m elted'fshorteningtwaszxadded slowly, 'then e addition of Driver'tmto the moistened 'sugarfree'mle -t sacrosewas added slowly, and finally-vnon-fat'millcsolids ,jpnffed rice was much less effective in causingjadherencei was addelf'likewise slowly/f The "entire mass was "thormfv t h'e particles to each other than the-moistened sugar noughly g three minutes A barpweighingli/z coating on eommerciallyavailablesugar-coatedoven w h jg f pm zgg, 51mmd me; e V V f V -toiisipfresufeorian areabf3 /4 x 1%in.usi'ng one stroke; 7

' EXAM E HI I t the bfe'akingst ren'gtlitest explainedabove 'sh'owed anj average; breaking strength of 400fgm. B'ilfafiiarallel W eX fi lit} using the same ingredients 'in'tlie" same "pi-o4.

rfibi'lt omitting the water; 'resu'ltedfin a bar hzwin'gi akin'g"strengthof'only 100 gm; r See' the-following; tableifdr meradetails: a t t a 160 gm. of sugar-coated puffed wheat, of the variety s old bowl of the'Hob ar t mixerand water was added in rp'ro 5' AB *portibns greater than'in Eiamples .I and "Ibas shown by.

as descriljediniconnebtiodwith Eiample III; Four' dif f er- T 7 cut Cereal bars ofione ounce'eachwerethus:made, com-1. v a a a .7 V

\ I Biea Corn Short-V pressed withltons pressurenni the. Den sqn. apparatus sgm' l' ii a s cereal; suing Sucrose:

No. (a t) is ta scribeda 7 t t t K .a W, a. r

In samples '5 and 6, instead of sugar-eoat ed 'puaed '7 v V 1 V i 400 wheat, uncoate'd gtin-pfifled heat-wasen'iployed and 35 2" V V Z f w m'o enonghWDrivert? was mixed in spowdered- 'foi'm taffer 1 V s V 7 i Y tmoisteninglio P d 111a sameirelative Sugar i Obviously miX-tliresof the-cereals m'entioned'h'erein V ti'on'as' theisugalf'coated P Wheat p ew- 3 vaiieus proportion'sgand mixtures ofsimilar'sugar-coatedV Saniplesfiiand; 6 were then testedas explained above,--witlr 156 13 y i g it f v(meal a in ac the resulty'showniiniTableai] I v I V 40 witli the inventiom A1so-sma1lamounts of -'fla v.ori n'g;f

' r I V materials could be added, for example; small proportions f Table V r a I o f 'chocolate,-eocoa butter; lic'orice and other solid flavor- I 7' samples 2 i-and 3,=respective1y,.-a cerealbar fwasxmade =withoutiwate gkandeanother cereal barwasamade, inithe identical waywith-thesameamountof water -(stgmt) but .7 a 72-2377 2 With2 57 ofieffDrivertil added:to. -suganfree thateis,sf 7 3 T;

' uncnated commflakes. resul t s gis len below again 7 premiums; r i V i lam) (g -l (g '-.(g 2-)- 'siniilar to lthe one-'Iclaim,-

$#-wei-ght;of 'Waterto asugar-coatedprocess'ed f T part cu tie eereal 5whereby 1he cerealparticlesare'reni dffi dh s'iv 'i-miiting the dampened cereal, adding a: V 7 1 i 1 H r V i 3 JIII OlZ IlOllflIf lli *I11i 1k{S01E18 and -mi xing agai flf" Here again is evidenceofthe highstrength bond created addihg=a'-'small amonnt bf melted shortening and bsaarelativelyfsmallfamountof water -1 garagaingthen forming the-barfandsubiectihgthe-formed f coatedpyfled Zcerealt-priop to compression into-agcereaL bar to a pressnre of not less than 500 iqrsfixnotjmor Y than2 0O0p .s.i;-a V V flakes} an m tiire'softhesei strokes. *In parallel experiments summarized in Table 4 ,2

prove her-effectiveness tofl addinglrwater,inrxa --relatively;:- T" ffln yi i mg ga d small amount tosugagcoatedzcere flakes priorto coma publi hedb glheiM Mm em y r g msz .i' 

1. A PROCESS OF MAKING CEREAL BARS CAPABLE OF WITHSTANDING ROUGH HANDLING WHICH COMPRISES SLOWLY ADDING 1 TO 6% BY WEIGHT OF WATER TO A SUGAR-COATED PROCESSED PARTICULATE CEREAL WHEREBY THE CEREAL PARTICLES ARE RENDERED ADHESIVE, MIXING THE DAMPENED CEREAL, ADDING A SMALL AMOUNT OF NON-FAT MILK SOLIDS AND MIXING AGAIN, ADDING A SMALL AMOUNT OF MELTED SHORTENING AND MIXING AGAIN, THEN FORMING THE BAR, AND SUBJECTING THE FORMED BAR TO A PRESSURE OF NOT LESS THAN 500 P. S. I. NOR MORE THAN 2000 P. S. I. 